1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical phantom of a living body for measuring dynamic changes of physiological states in the course of developing systems for medical diagnosis and treatment, and to a method of producing the optical phantom.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a living body, diseased parts exhibit different light scattering and absorption coefficients compared to normal tissue regions. Technology is therefore being developed that involves irradiating a target examination region with light and measuring the resultant light output to establish the location of diseased tissue regions, diagnose the presence or absence of such a diseased tissue region and treat diseased tissue regions.
However, while in the development of medical diagnostic and treatment equipment that utilizes light, it is important to clarify how the light propagates inside a living body, and which part of the living body is to be diagnosed and treated; this is very difficult to accomplish. If it is possible to produce a phantom that optically simulates the human body and other living bodies, and if the phantom could be internally provided with portions that simulate various diseased parts and tissue functions, it would enable the effectiveness of diagnostic and treatment systems to be accurately evaluated.
Slab-shaped and cylindrical phantoms have been fabricated for basic research. Also, in Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 10-222055 the present inventors disclosed an optical phantom simulating the human body. With this phantom, however, it is not possible to optically measure dynamic change in physiological states such as that which takes place in muscles, the brain, and blood flow.
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical phantom that enables dynamic changes in physiological state to be measured, and a method for producing the optical phantom.